Century has passed since Buffalo soldier, Filipina moved to Vallejo

Published By Times Herald

Growing up in Vallejo, Bob Parlocha never knew the importance his mother's parents had to the city's history.

He did know, however, that his grandmother liked to pinch his ear if he got too close.

"My mother's generation referred to my grandmother as 'The General.' She had iron braces on her legs, and she would always say, 'Come here boy,' " Parlocha said, noting that he quickly learned to evade his grand- mother's fingers.

But Maria Martinez was more than just "The General," as her children called her. As Parlocha would learn, his family was the first known Filipino family to settle in Vallejo.

A soldier, his bride

This year marks the 100-year anniversary that Parlocha's grandparents, George Washington Carter Jr. and Maria Martinez, left their farm in the Philippines to seek a better life in Vallejo.

Carter was a Louisiana native and a Buffalo Soldier, a member of the legendary African American regiments of the segregated 19th and early 20th centuries.

During the Spanish-American War that broke out in 1898, Carter and his regiment were sent to the Philippines, then a Spanish colony.

By the time the war was over - and after the United States violently crushed a Filipino independence movement - Carter found himself in love with Maria Martinez.

Their interracial marriage was not unusual, said Mel Orpilla, a Vallejo historian and writer instrumental in getting October named Filipino American History Month in California. Orpilla is the author of "Filipinos in Vallejo."

"After the Philippine-American War, it's estimated that about 1,000 black Buffalo Soldiers either married Filipina women and lived the rest of their lives in the Philippines, or brought their war brides back to the United States," Orpilla said.

Orpilla has been unable to find records of Filipino families before 1912, though individual Filipinos were likely already in Vallejo, he said.

The Carters settled down to raise pigs in San Fernando, La Union, on the northern island of Luzon.

But unfortunately for the young couple, crocodiles kept eating their pigs. Calling it quits, the two decided to leave the Philippines and head to California.

Buffalo Soldiers

The sight of a Buffalo Soldier in Vallejo was not unusual, said Sharon McGriff-Payne, a Vallejo writer who authored a book about early African American history in the city.

Many of the Buffalo Soldiers were at the Presidio in San Francisco, where the United States had it forces assemble for the Spanish-American War.

"A large number of them moved to Vallejo after they left the service," McGriff-Payne said.

Many were from the Deep South and did not relish the idea of returning to the brutal segregation of the Jim Crow era. In Vallejo, the Buffalo Soldiers found a well-established African American community.

But it was the Buffalo Soldiers who established many of the notable black institutions of the city, including the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Prince Hall Mason Lodge and the Second Baptist Church.

And though the Buffalo Soldiers were trying to escape prejudice, they found plenty of it in Vallejo, as many entities - such as the First Baptist Church - declined to accept African Americans.

Filipinos in Vallejo

It would be an experience paralleled by the Fiipinos who settled in Vallejo, such as Parlocha's family.

The Carters had several children, including Parlocha's mother Maria Carter, spreading their biracial roots deep throughout Vallejo. Like African Americans, Filipinos had difficulty getting accepted into various institutions, particularly the Catholic Churches.

In response, the immigrants established the Filipino Methodist Church, now Fellowship Methodist Church. "I loved that choir," Parlocha said.

Parlocha's parents, Maria Carter and Carlos Parlocha, lived on Ohio Street. At the time, housing covenants severely restricted where people of color could live.

Parlocha remembered the whispers and furtive points when he first started school that associated Filipino American children like himself with Lower Georgia Street.

"Lower Georgia Street was where the Filipino community was, and that's where we were. I was there every day. I never understood why they whispered like that. I got it later, when I grew up," Parlocha said.

"My mother suffered from a lot of prejudice because she was half black and half Filipino. It affected her her whole life. She had some ill feelings about some of the things that were said to her when she was younger," Reyes said.

Reyes' mother is Alice Carter, the sister of Parlocha's mother. Alice Carter died in 2008.

Parlocha and Reyes both graduated from Vallejo High School, the former in 1956 and the latter in 1964.

"Vallejo High was great. I loved high school. ... I had a great time there and spent a lot more years than high school, because I went to Vallejo Junior High School, then I went to Vallejo College," Parlocha said.

The junior high was right across from Vallejo High, which also contained the college. It was at the high school that Parlocha, who at 74 is now a well-known jazz expert and radio personality, fell in love with the saxophone, thanks to the attention of band director Virl Swan.

"He was a wonderful man, and in many ways, he saved me from jail because I was kind of a wild kid," Parlocha said.

A quarter black, Parlocha had a difficult time establishing his identity

"When you look at my sisters, they look like they're Filipino, and I don't. That was hell on wheels," Parlocha said.

Many of the other Filipinos in town had problems with Parlocha because of his mixed heritage. Reyes, who has lighter skin, escaped some of that.

Through music, Parlocha was able to ignore some of the racial tensions infusing Vallejo in the 1950s.

"I found my niche when I began to hang out with musicians. ... and that's why I stuck with it. It didn't matter to me what their ethnicity was. If you played the horn, you were a good person," Parlocha said.

Legacy

George Carter and Maria Martinez' marriage did not last. The Vallejo part of the family lost touch with Carter after he remarried, Reyes said.

However, many of his descendants, like Reyes, still live in Vallejo.

Parlocha now lives in Alameda, a few blocks from where he spent 20 years as a KJAZ radio personality. However, he is a regular visitor to Vallejo for events like the Vallejo High School alumni day and various family functions.

Stories like those of his family are important and must be told, Parlocha said.

"Half of our families don't know anything about our family. It's always good to know where you came from. It sets you in a a place, in space and time," Parlocha said.

Additionally, it's important to document the generation of Filipino settlers in Vallejo who preceded the "manong" generation that came during a 1906-1934 period of unrestricted immigration for Filipinos, Orpilla said.

Parlocha's mother Maria died in 1995, loosening the bonds of Parlocha's family as they spread across the region.

In more than seven decades of life, Parlocha has never visited the Philippines and has never seen the site of a pig farm where, 100 years ago, crocodiles forced a young couple to leave the islands behind for a new life in America.

Still, that homecoming is planned - just as soon as the energetic Parlocha takes a trip to Italy and Cambodia.

And though Parlocha still struggles with his memories of racism and prejudice in Vallejo, the sax player from Vallejo High School now has a strong sense of self and identity within his multiracial heritage.

"I think of myself as the individual. I am me. When people ask me, 'What are you,' my stock answer over the years was always, 'I am whatever you need me to be,' " Parlocha said.